Find out how the lyrics of Misery came to be written.

Beatles Album: Please Please Me: Track 2

Year: 1963

Lyrics: Lennon and McCartney

Length: 1.43

During the release of the Please Please Me album the Beatles did not have many songs that were considered strong enough for inclusion on the album by the record company, so they had to come up with some fast. Although the album contained many good tracks by American artists it was important for them to stamp their mark on the album and ended up including five previously unreleased compositions.

The lyrics to the Beatles Misery song were written back stage at a concert at the King’s hall in Stoke on the 26 th of January, 1963 . John mainly wrote the song, and took an opposite view of Paul, who had been cocksure on his first song “I saw her standing there” by composing a song about a girl leaving him and leaving him depressed in a state of misery. In addition to Paul, other people namely Allan Clarke and Graham Nash contributed some of the lyrics to Misery, as the Beatles were trying to push out the song as quickly as possible so that it could be put onto their first album.

On the song John and Paul sing the song as a duet, and gives an idea of how closely the pair could blend their voices into one, with Misery sounding almost as if it is double tracked.

The boys tried to give this song to Helen Shapiro to record, with John saying that even though “we’ve called it Misery” it is not a slow song and he thinks that Shapiro will make a good job of recording it. The song was eventually recorded by Kenny Lynch, making Misery the first Lennon McCartney composition to be recorded by a non Beatle.